{"id":246313,"date":"2026-08-12T15:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/246313\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T15:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:06:16","slug":"should-jews-who-support-israel-avoid-the-word-zionism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/246313\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Jews who support Israel avoid the word \u2018Zionism\u2019?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

A communications consultant was let go by the Jewish Federations of North America<\/a> last week for saying something that a number of Jewish leaders and thinkers have been saying for years: Maybe Jews and supporters of Israel should be more tactical about using, and not using, the word \u201cZionism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Berger, who had been hired by the umbrella group to head a new strategic communications project, was speaking to members of JFNA\u2019s Young Leadership Cabinet last Tuesday in Minneapolis about effective messaging about Israel. Among his recommendations, according to a slide he showed during the presentation, were \u201cshowcase diversity,\u201d \u201cfocus on the common enemy\u201d and \u201cavoid \u2018Zionism.\u2019\u201d (Quotes around Zionism included.)<\/p>\n

The slide, shared with the conservative Jewish news service JNS by an unnamed attendee, was the focus of a JNS article on Aug. <\/a>5. In response, a JFNA spokesperson reaffirmed that the umbrella group is \u201cproudly Zionist,\u201d and appeared to defend the presentation by Berger, who had been hired to head Project Halo, a JFNA effort to help federation leaders \u201ccounter antisemitism and anti-Zionism\u201d in their communications.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis slide was part of a discussion about what data shows to be effective messaging in today\u2019s polarized political environment and should not be taken to imply anything else,\u201d Niv Elis, JFNA\u2019s associate vice president for external communications, told JNS.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within hours of its publication, after the JNS story was shared on social media by various pro-Israel users, JFNA ended its contract with Berger. \u201cThe presentation at our National Young Leadership Cabinet Retreat was not prepared by Jewish Federations of North America, but by a Project Halo consultant, and does not represent our approach to Zionism.\u201d according to a statement by JFNA that Wednesday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elis declined to comment to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency beyond sharing the statement.<\/p>\n

In an interview with JTA on Tuesday, Berger, who worked as a reporter for JTA from 2000-2006, declined to comment on either JFNA or the presentation in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

But he did share his thoughts on the uses, and misunderstandings, surrounding the word \u201cZionism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy purpose as a communicator is to use messaging to advance a goal. If the goal is to raise awareness of antisemitism and build allyship, then we have to understand the word \u2018Zionism\u2019 is being misconstrued,\u201d said Berger,\u00a0 the former executive director of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism<\/a>. \u201cAnd we can either spend our energy trying to define it and fix that or use language that people are going to understand to open doors to engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversy might suggest that Berger had somehow violated a Jewish communal taboo, when in fact numerous Jewish organizations and commentators who are emphatically Zionist are noting how the term itself is sowing confusion. Like Berger, they are not questioning the tenets of Zionism \u2014 the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their historic homeland \u2014 but its rhetorical weight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Anti-Defamation League regularly tracks how \u201cZionist\u201d is deployed as an antisemitic slur<\/a>. The American Jewish Committee\u2019s \u201cTranslate Hate<\/a>\u201d glossary notes how using \u201dZionism\u201d and \u201cJudaism\u201d interchangeably \u201cblames Jewish people for the actions and policies of the State of Israel.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Zionist\u2019 is increasingly used as a defamatory code word for Jews, in order to disguise antisemitic narratives,\u201d according to \u201cReclaim Zionism<\/a>,\u201d a website launched earlier this year by the American Zionist Movement coalition.\u00a0 \u201cThis deliberate or unconscious distortion fuels hostility and creates a social climate in which Jewish life is questioned or threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The distortion of the words by Israel\u2019s enemies is not the only challenge organizations are seeing. JFNA\u2019s own polling suggests that a Jewish majority that nonetheless wholeheartedly supports Israel avoids using the term to describe their own beliefs. A February JFNA poll<\/a> found that only 37% of American Jews describe themselves as Zionists. Yet 88% said Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state. Only a relatively small percentage of respondents identified as anti-Zionist.<\/p>\n

The study, a JFNA official explained at the time, suggested reasons why Jews might hesitate to use the term \u201cZionist\u201d: They are unclear on its definition, or they think it implies blanket support for Israeli government policies and actions they don\u2019t agree with.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we misread the trend about \u2018Zionism\u2019 to mean that large numbers of Jews, especially young Jews, are turning against the existence of Israel itself, we will draw the wrong conclusions and take the wrong actions,\u201d Mimi <\/a>Kravetz, JFNA\u2019s chief impact officer, wrote in a JTA essay<\/a> timed to the poll\u2019s release. In the same essay, she acknowledged that the word has undergone \u201cdefinition creep.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar interpretation of the poll results was also included in a Project Halo \u201cbackgrounder\u201d in February, providing communications guidance for Jewish organization staff when speaking with Jewish and non-Jewish audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe term \u2018Zionism\u2019 is often used to mean different things depending on the speaker, fueling confusion and misunderstanding,\u201d according to the backgrounder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Berger did in Minneapolis, Project Halo recommended that Jewish professionals \u201cfocus on using terms that have broader appeal among Jewish audiences.\u201d When using \u201cZionism,\u201d meanwhile, the backgrounder recommended that speakers define it \u2014 as a movement for self-determination, a Jewish democratic state and Israel\u2019s right to exist that does not imply support for the sitting government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Matthew Berger, president and CEO of Mashber Strategies, was hired by the Jewish Federations of North America to help guide staff and lay leader in effective communications strategies around Israel. (Courtesy Mashber)<\/p>\n

Beyond confusion over the meaning of \u201cZionism,\u201d some academics and activists suggest that the word itself has outlived its usefulness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just that Israel\u2019s enemies use the term \u201cZionist\u201d as a slur; rather, as Judaica scholars Alanna E. Cooper and Sharona Hoffman<\/a> argued in a JTA essay, the word confuses a historic and political movement with the undeniable fact that Israel is an established country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[B]y continuing to use the terms \u2018Zionist\u2019 and \u2018Zionism\u2019 we undermine Israel\u2019s normalization,\u201d the two wrote in 2024.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outside of the academy, the performer and pro-Israel influencer Jonah Platt \u2014 whose mother Julie Platt chaired JFNA\u2019s board of trustees from 2022 to 2025 \u2014 also suggested that \u201cit\u2019s time to retire the word \u2018Zionist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Zionist movement succeeded, he wrote in the Forward in April 2025<\/a>. Israel exists. Why continue to use an aspirational term from the 19th-century to describe Israel\u2019s 21st-century reality, when it is too often defined by Israel\u2019s detractors as \u201ca racist, destructive \u2018ideology\u2019\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe no longer need a term to describe someone who believes a state of Israel should exist as the Jewish homeland,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBecause a state of Israel, as the Jewish homeland, already exists. And it is not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defenders of the term, meanwhile, see suggestions for retiring or even de-emphasizing terms like \u201cZionism\u201d as a capitulation to the enemies of Jews and Israel.<\/p>\n

Responding to Cooper and Hoffman in a JTA essay<\/a>, Zack Bodner, a founder of the pro-Israel Z3 Project, called retirement of the word \u201ca mistake of epic proportions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we allow our enemies to turn Zionism into a dirty word, then that will pave the way for them to turn the entire Zionist enterprise into a dirty movement,\u201d wrote Bodner.<\/p>\n

Like Zionism itself, attitudes toward the word defy easy political pigeon-holing. The bestselling Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, a fierce critic of the current Israeli government, is nonetheless an unapologetic defender of the word \u201cZionism\u201d and \u201cZionist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to emphasize and reclaim this word, which has been vilified,\u201d he told The Atlantic<\/a> on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks. HIs definition: Jews are a people; Jews have a right to self-determination; and Jews have a deep historical, cultural and spiritual connection to the land of Israel.<\/p>\n

None of those propositions, he argues, requires denying Palestinian peoplehood or Palestinian self-determination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like Harari, many defenders of the term are eager to suggest that \u201cZionism\u201d is not monolithic, and can contain a number of political ideologies and Jewish identities, from liberal supporters of a two-state solution to a nationalist proponent of the settler movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The American Zionist Movement, which has gone under its current name since 1993, notes on its \u201cReclaim Zionism\u201d website that \u201cnot every position or group that identifies as Zionist or is labeled as such reflects our values.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an essay earlier this year<\/a> explaining why he embraces the Zionist label, Kenneth L. Marcus, who litigates against antisemitism as head of the Louis D. Brandeis Center, explained that the word doesn\u2019t have only one meaning. He described the various ways he considered himself a Zionist, including \u201creligious,\u201d \u201ccultural\u201d and \u201cpolitical.\u201d<\/p>\n

If that is the case, many have concluded, a term with so many competing meanings has lost its usefulness.<\/p>\n

That appeared to be the communications problem Berger was trying to solve, in the face of some Jewish leaders who see any attempt to downplay \u201cZionism\u201d as an abdication of Jewish identity or a surrender to the left.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy perspective is not to shy away from supporting Israel as a Jewish democracy or the Jewish right to self-determination,\u201d Berger told JTA. \u201cInstead, I recommend people define Zionism in context and talk about their \u2018support of Israel as a Jewish democratic state\u2019 and the \u2018right to self-determination\u2019 \u2013 use those terms instead of relying on a shorthand that might mean something to you but might be heard differently than intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporting the stories that define our era. When history unfolds in real-time, the Jewish world turns to JTA. Your support ensures we can document the complexities of war and the resilience of Jewish communities with integrity.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A communications consultant was let go by the Jewish Federations of North America last week for saying something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[37,68508,16156,6393],"class_list":["post-246313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-israel","tag-jfna","tag-language","tag-zionism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117083163361682074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}